Dear Colleagues,
Please find below a letter regarding the National Science Foundation's
Undergraduate Mentoring in Environmental Biology (UMEB) program, an activity
designed to enhance the opportunities for undergraduate students,
particularly those from underrepresented groups, to participate in research
in environmental biology.
Please distribute this letter as you see appropriate. Thank you so much.
Susan Singer
NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
DIRECTORATE FOR BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Division of Environmental Biology and
Division of Integrative Biology and Neuroscience
4201 Wilson Boulevard
Arlington, VA 22230
9 December 1999
Dear Colleague:
The Divisions of Environmental Biology (DEB) and Integrative Biology and
Neuroscience (IBN) are soliciting proposals for Undergraduate Mentoring in
Environmental Biology (UMEB; NSF 00-8), an activity designed to enhance the
opportunities for undergraduate students, particularly those from
underrepresented groups, to participate in research in environmental
biology. For the purposes of this solicitation, these groups include
persons with disabilities and members of those racial and ethnic groups
underrepresented in science and engineering: Native Americans (American
Indians and Alaskan Natives), Blacks (African Americans), Native Pacific
Islanders (Polynesians or Micronesians), and Hispanics (Latinos).
Also for the purposes of this solicitation, "environmental biology" is
broadly defined to include areas of research funded by IBN Programs in
Ecological and Evolutionary Physiology, Integrative Plant Biology,
Integrative Animal Biology, and Animal Behavior, as well as areas of
research funded by DEB Programs in Systematic Biology, Population Biology,
Biotic Surveys and Inventories, Ecology, Ecosystem Studies, Long-Term
Research in Environmental Biology, and Long-Term Ecological Research Sites.
This activity is an extension of, and builds upon, NSF's Research
Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program (NSF 96-102). Proposals
received by January 26, 2000, will be considered for awards to start in
September 2000.
The intent of this activity is to provide support for talented students to
gain research experience and an enriched educational environment in
environmental biology. Proposed projects should include major emphasis on
direct student participation in research during the academic year and
summer, with individual students continuing in the program for more than one
year. Projects should emphasize factors that encourage and enable members
of underrepresented groups to enter and remain in environmental biology.
The Directorate for Biological Sciences (BIO) particularly encourages UMEB
proposals involving collaboration between research universities and
predominantly undergraduate institutions with significant minority
enrollment and/or a tradition of training minority students.
NSF will consider proposals from any institution that has at least three
currently funded or recently expired (no earlier than January 26, 1998)
multi-year research awards (excluding SGER, equipment, planning, travel,
symposium, facilities, training grants, supplements, or fellowships) from
DEB and/or from the Ecological and Evolutionary Physiology, Integrative
Plant Biology, Integrative Animal Biology, and/or Animal Behavior Program in
IBN. Institutions submitting collaborative proposals must have,
collectively, a total of at least three awards as described above.
Information about previously awarded UMEB grants can be found on the home
page of NSF's Directorate for Biological Sciences at:
http://www.nsf.gov/bio/progdes/nsf008.htm .
For more information about the UMEB activity and for details about proposal
submission, please consult the program announcement, NSF 00-8, which is
available electronically at: http://www.nsf.gov/cgi-bin/getpub?nsf008 . For
any additional questions about this activity, please contact one of the
program directors listed below. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth E. Lyons, elyons at nsf.gov Fred Stollnitz, fstollni at nsf.gov
Program Director, Population Biology/DEB Program Director,
Cross-Directorate Activities/IBN
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